


Zutara Month 2020

by archergwen



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Zutara, Zutara Month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 11,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22577620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archergwen/pseuds/archergwen
Summary: Collection of my submissions for Zutara Month 2020. Will be rearranged as necessary to be in prompt order, not written order.When in doubt, it's a drabble. I had fun perfecting my technique with those.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	1. Feb 1 - Blue Spirit and Painted Lady

The lady pulled a shivering man from the most southern sea, her hat’s veil dripping low with gravity, catching on the mask he held in one hand.

“Help me,” he whispered through clattering teeth as she bent the ice cold water away from his body.

“I’m trying,” she replied quietly, pulling the snow beneath them to roll in waves like a river carrying the two of them back to her small hut; his swords rustled on his back through the rising and falling movement.

“Help me,” he whispered again, head lolling powerlessly.

She dumped him beside her fire, drawing melted snow around her painted hands to glow with power. “Stranger, I demand you live.”

She touched his heart, and his gold eyes snapped open to meet hers. He breathed easier, skin still far paler than hers but not pale with death. “Dear lady, I thank you for my life. May I ask your name of you, as well?”

“Not without yours in turn.”

Ruefully, he shook his head. “Alas, no, my lady. It was stolen from me and sealed away with my heart in a place far from here. A place that still calls me.”

“More fool you, losing heart and home all at once.” She stood, brushing snowflakes from her gauzy dress. “Well, come along then. We must find these things if you wish to be restored.”

“I do,” he replied, putting a dark-gloved hand into her richly brown one.

The painted lady led her blue spirit to the very edges of the ice she’d lived on for as long as she could recall, years or days stretching back.

He hesitated. “How am I supposed to cross running water and not be lost again?”

She smiled, hands rising and falling like a wave, and a small raft of ice formed before them. “You will not cross the water. It shall cross you.”

Again, he took her hand, summer breezes warming their faces, teasing her veil.

Again, she smiled, soft and welcoming, and the world lurched around them as her manufactured ice floe moved through the waves.

They blinked and stared up at the cliffs before them.

“Well, my lady,” the blue-clothed spirit began, wedging a toe in the cliff as his fingers grasped for the rocks. “Shall we ascend?”

Icy spikes sprung from her hands like claws which she wedged into the cliff as well. “We shall.”

It was a long climb and a short climb - the air whipped through their clothing the higher they got. It seemed for a moment the wind might rip them from the cliffside, despite their spiritual natures, but then as if in no time they were standing at the top, breathing as if they’d only gone on a short stroll.

“Look-”

Before them was an ornate and dark building. It was sad and old, half in their world, half in the human world.

“It’s here.”

He hurried forward, and she rushed after them. Their long strides ate up the distance in little time. Before entering, they bowed. Stepping into the shadows, the two quickly scanned for others, but there was no other moving thing.

There were, however, slabs of stone lining the walls and sarcophogai arranged orderly through the room. He walked towards a paired set of caskets, resting his hand on the left one. “I think... I think this is me.”

She hovered next to him. “But, how?”

“I think... I think I was allowed to become more after death.” He froze, turning to the tomb paired with his. “And I think-”

“This was me.”

The revelation tolled through the two like a bell, echoing and resetting everything in their hearts.

“I’ve missed you,” they said in tandem, staring into eyes they knew so well. Eyes they loved so well.


	2. Feb 2 - Parents

“How am I ever going to protect her,” Zuko whispered, almost shuddering in awe. His wife smiled, blue eyes shining as she bent down to press a kiss to his forehead.

Held safe and warm in her father’s arms, the recently-born Kya stirred with a small coo. Zuko’s shoulders tightened, but he breathed and released the tension. Kya scrunched her small - perfect - brown nose, sneezed, and went back to sleep.

Katara tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, fingers curling lovingly around his face. “We’re going to be good at this. She already knows she’s safe in your arms.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not all of them will be drabbles, but this was too perfect a start. Enjoy!


	3. Feb 3 - Season 4 Zutara

Katara had her forehead propped up in her hands, fingers twisting angrily through her hair at her temples. The tea in front of her had long gone cold as she couldn’t manage to finish it.

“I am just, just, angry. All the time. And I don’t know why? We won. I should be happy. I should be fine. I just need to smile, and wave, and let peace talks happen and-” She cut herself off with a guttural, low noise crawling itself out of her throat.

A warm hand rested on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry. That’s rough to have to deal with.”

“And Aang doesn’t get it!”

As her hands slammed down with violent force, she exploded backwards from the table, one of the side rooms tucked away off the kitchen of the Earth King’s palace. A couple servants gave a worried look, but the Fire Lord gave them a shooing gesture with easy grace, and they scurried back to work out of the master waterbender’s range.

“He gets to meditate and speak with all he’s lost and charm the pants off socialites and have generals take him seriously-!”

The warm hand starts rubbing circles on her back, and though her anger is not abated she cuts herself off in surprise.

“Yeah, Aang has gotten all he wanted that he possibly could. What does that have to do with ‘getting it’ as you put it?”

He asks the question gently, as if he already knows the answer but wants to hear her put it together. Katara looks up into Zuko’s face, who must have at some point moved seats because he is far closer than she remembers from five minutes ago.

The Fire Lord. She looks up into the Fire Lord’s face. Ugh, he ought to be in a meeting shaping the new world or feeding strawberries to his girlfriend or whatever, not listening to her be stupid.

“Nevermind, it’s, it’s not that important.”

The hand stills.

“Katara, I think nothing could possibly be more important right now. You are upset, and Aang is busy. As your friend, I ought to be here.”

“No wonder Mai likes you so much.” He winces. “What?”

“I will tell you-” He levels a serious, determined look straight into her eyes. “Once you finish telling me what’s wrong.”

She sighs, sinking a little into the hand that has resumed tracing gentle, warm circles on her back. “It’s just, we won. Aang got everything he wanted. Sure, he misses the Air Temples, but he’s happy. But I’m not sure he understands that I’m-”

She cuts herself off, staring straight ahead at the wall, suddenly afraid that if she voices the next word, everything will come crashing down.

“You’re not,” he says, softly, as if it’s okay.

But it’s not okay. How can it be okay if she can’t even be happy that she saved the world-

Suddenly, she can’t see. But her face is pressed into something warm; there’s a warm hand cradling the back of her head while another pressed desperately into her shoulder blades, rubbing more intent circles. A voice was murmuring - oh. Oh. She was crying. She shouldn’t be crying, shouldn’t be a bother, but, well, she was here already and Zuko seemed okay with it.

“It’s going to be alright,” he kept half-whispering into her hair, his voice warm and rough with emotion. “It might be hard, but you’re going to be alright.”

When she no longer felt like crying, Katara pulled back. Zuko’s grip relaxed, and he let her take a steadying breath and retreat to the distance she wanted. She didn’t retreat so far that he had to remove his hand from her shoulder.

“Has anyone listened to your opinion lately?”

“With everyone else around, why would they need it?”

His brow furrowed. “That’s it.” She briefly stiffened, instinctively assuming the anger in his tone was directed at her, the only other person in the room. “Katara, I would like to appoint you to my staff. Your only job will be to yell at idiots when I am not around to do so, and to put forth any good ideas you have in a meeting. Agni, you can take all the ideas I have right now if you want just to get the taste back in your mouth for bossing around old men who should’ve been listening to you in the first place.”

“What?”

“Just-” He ran his free hand through his hair to rub the back of his neck. “Just, take the job please. You’ll be equals with Uncle as an advisor. I need someone to keep him and his tea in line.”

Katara paused, considering. “I like his tea.”

“Well then you’ll make him endlessly happy.”

“What if I don’t like it?”

“Quit.”

He said it so simply, so non-nonchalantly with an easy shrug she almost wanted to turn him down to test it. As if she couldn’t beat his ass to the North Pole and back with a break for lunch if he tried to force her to stay.

“What about Aang?”

“What about him? He’s the Avatar, and an ally, and an airbender. He can, and probably will, come and go as he pleases. I’m not offering the job to him; I’m offering it to you.”

Katara stuck out her hand. “I’ll take it.” As they shook on it, she asked, “so other than your uncle’s tea, what perks do I get?”

“Well, I still have to figure out the budget I have for the job, but you’ll probably get to eat for free whether you say your my advisor or the Avatar’s girlfriend and savior of the world, so that’s covered. Um, I can throw in some airship rides? There’s a suite of rooms in the palace I can have aired out and decorated to your tastes if you’d like. Have a little escape crash pad.”

“Will they be near Mai’s at all?”

Zuko sighed, face falling. “No. She broke up with me.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, this time it was sort of because I wouldn’t let her father continue to govern Omashu.”

“But you had to give it back to Bumi!”

“Yeah! Only apparently family should’ve come first or something like that! I don’t know, it’s stupid. She’ll probably get over it and come back before too long.”

Katara hummed thoughtfully. “As your advisor, don’t let her.”

“Excuse me?”

“Doesn’t sound like she knows what she wants. Mai needs time to figure that out since her life situation did just change. Right at the end of a war? One you were a decently important actor in? That’s not the best time to jump into a relationship, especially one will all the baggage you two have. You don’t owe her romance because she saved your life and you used to date.”

Zuko smiled faintly. “Thanks, Katara. You’re already doing a good job.” He paused. “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”

“Not really, honestly. I think I want a nap.”

“That’s sounds wise.” Zuko stood, gathering up their dishes and re-heating her tea as he did so. “Have a good day, Advisor Katara. Think on what you said.”

WIth a respectful bow, he left.

“Think on what I said?” That didn’t even make sense.

_At least, not for a while._


	4. Feb 4 - Don’t Hurt Him

“Stop; stop!”

The bounty hunter threw her an unamused look over his shoulder, knee pressed solidly into Zuko’s back with drawn knife at the firebender’s lifted throat. His fist tightened around Zuko’s hair, who winced. 

“What?”

“Don’t hurt him. If you let him go, I’ll stop fighting you. I swear. On Tui and La.”

“Kat-“

“Done,” the stranger interrupted, shoving Zuko’s head onto the rocky ground with a thud.

Zuko groaned, disoriented, and rolled over to watch the other man throw the bound waterbender over his shoulder.

“Katara!”

“Don’t,” she mouthed back, forcing Zuko to watch her leave him - again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe next year I will do all drabbles. But I’ve got two longer pieces for days I’m almost ready to post.


	5. Feb 5 - Southern Water Tribe Culture

Zuko crouched in the snows between Sokka and Hakoda. Even with the warming breath that had saved him in the north, it was bitter cold.

“Is this really necessary?”

Hakoda chuckled. “Out of all of us, you ought to be the warmest.” His glove suddenly reached out and wrapped around Zuko’s wrist. All three focused on the seal colony emerging from the ocean. Making some final preparations, Hakoda eyed the Fire Lord. “Every man of the tribe needs his first seal hunt, just like every adult of the tribe dodges the ice with their father once they’re old enough. You may be an honorary member of the tribe, but the point still stands.” He grinned wolfishly. “Or did you not want a wedding feast?” 

As Zuko blushed, Sokka punched Zuko’s shoulder to punctuate his father’s point before they all moved together, on the hunt.

*

Katara leaned on Zuko as the revelry continued around them. They were bundled up in enough blankets to hide wandering hands if they’d had any energy left to anything more than smile contentedly as their wedding guests. Sokka was leading Suki and anyone else who would follow him in some wild line dance, trailing a giddy path around the center of the hall.

“Thank you for agreeing to this.”

“Of course. Your culture is important, too.”

She snuggled closer. “I feel like most people wouldn’t go for two weddings though.”

Zuko pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “As if one party could contain all the revelry we’ve witnessed this past couple months.”

She chuckled, warm and toasty. The line of dancers had fallen apart, Sokka and Suki into a pile on the floor in a corner with the other unmarried cousins, the aunts and uncles pairing off while Hakoda danced alone.

“We should join them,” Katara continued, sleepiness invading her voice.

Zuko looked down at his wife – twice-over now – her eyes slowly blinking as she fought to stay awake. “And miss this view? Never.”


	6. Feb 6 - Power Couple

Katara landed on her feet, bending her knees to take her into a swift somersault. She kept her hands open as she did so, and the waves from the spillway came with her as she rolled to her feet. Flames flashed harmlessly past her, and she paid them no mind. She’d long since learned how to tell what fiery projectiles would land from their trajectory. It was even easier in the half-light of dusk. She scooped up more ammo, so to speak, from the dam’s overflow channel as she kept moving uphill - freezing guards where they stood to keep them out of her way.

The flames along the top of the dam went out, and she grinned, sticking the last of the guards to the hillside. She raced the last few feet to the ridge just as her partner stuck his head out of the control post.

Zuko gave her a thumbs up, and she returned it. She stood on the solid ground of the mountainside as he raced towards her, running full-out to get his feet off the man-made, wooden structure as Katara lifted her hands, the reservoir responding to her call.

His momentum carried him past her, but he came back to stand next to her as the water began roll against the dam without putting pressure on it.

“How much longer,” she asked.

“You’ll know,” he huffed, breathing heavily.

As he exhaled again after speaking, a flash of bright orange suddenly lit up the center of the dam. Katara glanced at Zuko, who smiled with grim pride. Three more lit up in various parts as the first one began to grow, and Katara pulled more against the reservoir. 

The wood groaned, loud and unsettling. Sweat broke out on Katara’s brow from the effort of pulling at so much water against an admittedly well-designed dam.

“Can you do anything to help?”

He nodded, breathing in through his nose and exhaling slowly. From so far, it was difficult to reach out and feed his chi to the flames eating at the dam, but for Katara, his partner? He’d do anything. Two of the fires, the ones nearest, flared with his next exhale. He breathed again, eyes closed, and the center blaze flared larger. Katara’s stance slipped, and she watched the water she’d lost control of burst through the hole, extinguishing some of the original fire. She balled her fists tighter and bent a knee for better stabilization.

“Zuko?”

He breathed in deeper than so far this night, held it, and his eyes flew open. Gold and alight with effort, his gaze caught hers, turned over her shoulder for reassurance.

“Now,” he whispered, and then he fully, sharply exhaled with a punch forward.

As the remaining fires on the dam flared brighter, roaring out to eat at more of the dam, Katara lifted her bent leg and then quickly stepped – practically falling – to the side, pulling her hands with her so that almost the whole reservoir slammed anew into the weakened dam.

With a crunch, the dam gave way, and the river, held back for so long, roared free once again.

Leaning on each other, they watched the water – thick with debris – race along the riverbed towards the bridge. In the dim twilight, it was hard to make out the details, but the mass of a panicked invasion force racing to get off the bridge was just barely visible. As the angry river slammed into the bridge, the two murmured a quick prayer for the dead for any unable to escape the onslaught. They were enemies, but there was no defending against unleashed and vengeful nature.

As they turned toward the depleted reservoir, Zuko stopped short, causing Katara to stumble a little with the sudden shift of support. “Hey Katara, I think we’re on the wrong side of the river.”

She laughed, bumping his shoulder with her own. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for the resistance’s power couple, don’t you?”

He pulled himself close to her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, and together they started the long trek to get back to their allies and the chance to rest and be well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea owes a lot to the film "Force 10 from Navarone," which I've only seen about the last 20 minutes of, but what a great 20 minutes!


	7. Feb 7 - Soulmates

“Can you believe them, Suki? They’re just gonna steal my shit! It’s so- so- piratical!”

She bumped into a man – leather jacket, partially shaved head, trying too hard – his hand catching her wrist accidentally as color bloomed into the world and he murmured – _trying too damn hard_ – “I’ll save you from the pirates.”

Katara raked her eyes over this stranger yet apparent soulmate, smiling as his expression changed to account for sudden new colors. Oh, that scar was worse with the greys turned to red, but his golden eyes. Oh, his eyes.

“Well.” Suki chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it.”


	8. Feb 8 - Agni Kai

Katara will always remember the tragic flames - the end of a long, bitter journey. They’d dared, perhaps foolishly, to hope for a better ending that did not come. 

So the flames - the purifying fire of sibling against sibling, the dark mirror of her and Sokka.

The sacrifice - love and justice spun too tightly together to unravel while fighting a prodigy drunk on the comet’s passing power.

The victory - as she saved a man from death.

“Good thing there aren’t seconds in an Agni Kai, or we might have to share the throne.”

The kiss - that should have been.

The beginning -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot how much I love drabbles. Hope Zutara Month has been bringing you all a lot of joy, too!


	9. Feb 9 - Partners In Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a prequel/set-up to my fic “The One With(Out) A Supervillain,” a superhero love-square I’m going to get around to one of these days. So Zuko and Katara are not the Partners In Crime in this one, but later in the full fic they will be. Zuko does still have a partner in shenanigans, though…

The terms are clear, laid out after the lawyers his father retains and the brave ones Uncle scraped up from somewhere return from the room off the judge’s office. Zuko can exist unmolested in any area not currently claimed by the Sozin syndicate. Should the borders move, his father will be responsible for the financial burden of Zuko moving within a reasonable timeframe as determined by local tenant laws. Should Zuko come to harm at syndicate hands while outside their turf or due to the border moving before he could, Ozai will be responsible for making his son whole in the eyes of the law. 

Even at thirteen with bandages wrapped around half his face, he had not missed the smirk on his father’s face. 

The law can’t un-scar burnt flesh. 

Uncle had ensured Zuko finished school – homeschooled of course – and convinced him to go off to college for a time. 

Now he was back, in the city that had spat him out. No hard feelings though. Uncle had offered him a small condo in his building, knowing Ozai would not dare to set off the brother who’d stepped aside to mourn a son, not when Iroh’s contacts and history with the syndicate ran deeper and old men still murmured over whiskey how it was a shame Azulon’s brightest boy was forced out by grief and an ambitious brother. 

No amount of profit can erase the thought that grass might be greener elsewhere. 

Zuko pushed open the café door. He recognized the man behind the counter, one of his fellow classmates from university, a fellow engineering student with a knack for improvisation he wanted to ask advice of before he built a prototype. The court-ordered restitution had – under Uncle’s watchful eye – grown to be enough for all the parts he might need. 

“Sokka!” he called, lifting a hand. The Water Tribesman turned, smiled to see him, and lifted a hand in a reply greeting. 

Anything he might have said was cut off, however, by a different mass of brown and blue inserting herself right in front of him. She wielded a tray of drinks like it could be deadly in her capable hands and glared at him with the same eyes he’d made laugh in Sokka’s face. 

“Ah, um, hi. You must be Katara. Sokka’s told me a lot-” 

She shifted the tray – glasses and bowls clinking – and on instinct he froze. “What are you doing here?” 

“I… um-” 

Sokka, a knight in coffee shop aprons, threw one arm around Zuko’s shoulder and one arm around Katara’s free one – skillfully avoiding the dish tray. “Well, what an occasion! My little sister and my college buddy – meeting at last! Katara, this is Lee. Lee, Katara.” 

Katara’s head whipped to look at her brother. “This is Lee? You didn’t tell me he was-” 

She broke off with a long glance at him. Zuko could not for the life of him decipher that look. It seemed too wanting to be negative, but it also seemed like she wanted to tear him to shreds. After a second or perhaps a minute, Katara rolled her shoulders back and looked him dead in the eye. 

“I’m glad to meet one of my brother’s friends, no matter who they or their family are.” She paused. “Welcome to our café. Do try the white lotus tea.” 

With that, she whisked the tray silently away. 

Sokka turned to him, voice low so as not to carry far in the café as it returned to a casual murmur, “Seriously dude, what are you doing on this side of town?” 

“Am I really only allowed in basically three city blocks?” 

“No, but,” Sokka sighed. “Katara has not processed her grief at all. She still kinda blames all firebenders.” 

“It’s been how many years?” 

“Each in their own time, buddy. Not all of us have the budget for excellent, too-secure-for-the-mob-to-hurt therapists because our daddy shoved our face full of fire.” 

Zuko just gave his best friend a dry glare. “So do you want to hear about why I came in, or do you want to keep psychoanalyzing everyone’s trauma?” 

“If I wasn’t a tinkerer, I’d be an amazing therapist and you know it,” Sokka retorted, moving towards a table. 

“I thought you were a barista.” 

“You wound me!” 

Zuko tossed his backpack on a chair, pulling out a bunch of rolled papers. “You like it, you wierdo.” 

“What Suki and I get up to is none of your business.” 

Sokka was rewarded with about roughly a dozen quick thwaps in rapid succession with the paper tubes on his head and shoulders. “Gross, gross, gross. We will never discuss this again.”

* * *

Katara wiped the counter without taking her eyes off the boys at their table. She was so mad at her brother for concealing both that his college buddy was Zuko motherhecking Sozin, and that he was hot. She was also mad at herself, because Sokka hadn’t concealed how wonderful and broken his friend was – shy and determined to help people, a disappeared mom, abusive dad, cuddly uncle who was his only family and anchor – she’d wanted to scoop him up into their family and protect him, without somehow putting together Sokka’s stories with all the news articles, and also without realizing what that would do the concentration of hooligans around her.

She poured the dirty water into the appropriate bucket and turned back to face them. Hands on her hips, she gave her best impression of Gran-Gran as she cleared her throat at the boys dueling with Zuko’s paper as their fencing foils, who had half the other patrons concerned for their personal space and the other half smiling. 

Sokka, well-attuned to such a cough from living with Gran-Gran, lowered his “sword” and turned to look at her. This meant that Zuko - who had no similar instincts apparently – thrust his “sword” right into the center of Sokka’s back. The paper crumpled instantly, Sokka jumped about half a foot in the air, and Zuko reacted in horror, trying to flatten the paper back out. “Shit, shit, I needed that one!” 

She couldn’t help herself. She laughed, more than she had in weeks since she started her newest evening project. “Maybe you should take this to the break room, Sokka?” 

Her brother looked up from trying to de-crease some sort of blueprint. “Genius. You’re the best, Katara.” He grabbed Zuko’s backpack, and led the other boy in the charge back behind the counter. She tried to smile warmly at both him and Zuko as they rushed past. 

One of the concerned patrons, a petite Earth Kingdom woman, came to the counter for another pot of tea and also ask, “Was that, did your brother just run off with a Sozin?” 

Katara tilted her head to the side, a perfect picture of confusion. “What would we be doing inviting a Sozin into our café?” 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. You’re right. You just seemed so confrontational at first.” 

“Well, have you ever learned your brother has cute friends he hasn’t introduced you to?” Katara asked, pouring the hot water into a clean tea pot, the bending to stop even a single drop from spilling the one bit of bending she allowed herself in public. 

“He is cute, isn’t he? Your brother, too.” 

Katara chuckled. “Half price on the tea if you promise never to tell him?” 

“Isn’t it already half off for being a refill?” 

“You see the genius of my plan, then.” The customer chuckled and paid, leaving Katara to breathe a discreet sigh of relief. Honestly, she was keeping too many secrets these days, even if for good reasons. 

Moonrise could not come soon enough.


	10. Feb 10 - Fake Dating

“I still don’t see why I have to go.”

Sokka frowned at the Switch in his hand from the comfy chair. “It’s simple, Katara. Dad’s a teacher; at least half his coworkers will be there-” The console beeped sadly as Suki’s beeped triumphantly. “-and he’ll be disappointed in you if you don’t show up so he can brag about you.” He turned to look at Suki whose lap on which he was reclining. “How to you keep doing that, woman?”

Suki stuck her tongue out at him before replying, “get gud.”

“Rematch,” he said, kissing her nose. “Anyway, Katara, just go to your five year reunion. Who cares if you’re going solo? No one’s gonna care about high school drama.”

Both Katara and Suki snorted in derision at the same time. “Fine, think poorly of your classmates. But I bet that-”

The door to Sokka’s apartment slammed open and then closed as his roommate returned. He tossed his keys into the bowl on the kitchen island, effortlessly turned it into an exhausted wave, and practically floated through their small living room gathering and down the hall. Another door slammed, presumably his room, and the three in the living room all exchanged amused glances as the muffled sounds of rustling still drifted back up the hall. A creak announced a door opening again, and Zuko emerged from the hall. He collapsed into the couch next to Katara, making her bounce slightly with his force on the fluff.

“How is everyone?”

“I’m doing-” Suki’s switch beeped merrily again. “Oh come on!”

“Give it up, Boomerang,” Zuko drawled, leaning his head back on the couch to stare at the ceiling, exposing his long, pale neck. “Your girlfriend is unbeatable.”

“Damn right I am!”

“Stop victory dancing under me! This is very unsettling!”

Chuckling, Katara returned her gaze to Zuko’s neck – since his face was currently unavailable. “We’re fine. How are you?”

His low groan was somewhat lost in the din of Sokka and Suki’s playful argument. “I’m alright. I’m just, tired of dealing with people, both at work in Uncle’s shop and with the city council.”

“Well I think you’re doing an amazing job.”

He lifted his head to give her a big smile just as Sokka turned to them from where he was now upside down on the chair. “Hey Zuko, go with Katara to her high school reunion. She needs a fake boyfriend to stave off all the terrible gossip remaining from high school.”

“Oh that’s not-”

“Sure, what night is it? Uncle will happily give me the night off.”

“Um, next Saturday. Doors open at 4:30 with dinner starting at 5:30. We don’t have to stay the whole time.”

He gave her a cheeky eyebrow raise. “I’m prepared to stay as long as it takes. I’ll save you from the gossips.”

“Careful, Zuko,” Sokka said teasingly before Suki shoved him onto the floor with a thwump. “Katara was quite the heartbreaker in high school. You’ll have to beat them off you with a stick.”

*

Katara was clenching the steering so hard she thought she might snap it off. “We should probably go over our story before we go in.”

Zuko gave her an amused glance. “Our story?”

“Yeah. How long have we been fake dating?”

“How long ago was your last relationship?”

She thought for a moment back to college. “Three years.”

“Year and a half then. Taking it slow because we started when you were in your final semester of college, about to do study-abroad; I was just elected to the city council but didn’t want you to get away so to speak without taking a chance, so we’ve only been dating in the same city on equal life footing for eight months, but it’s been long enough that it’s not too early in the relationship to bring me to a reunion and have it be desperate.”

“Yeah that makes-” She blanched. “That’s very good but my dad will be in there.”

“So tell him your plot.”

“What!” Zuko shrugged. “He’s Sokka’s dad, too. You think he wouldn’t like a good prank?”

“It’s not a prank,” she replied, exhaling as she released the steering well. “It’s winning the relationships.”

“That’s healthy,” he quipped, getting out of the car. She laughed as she slipped out of the car.

“Really? You of all people are gonna say that when you would date your private school girlfriend no matter what crap she’d put you through?”

Zuko shrugged, throwing an arm over her shoulders as the moved towards the door to the gymnasium. “Takes one to know one, princess.”

“Gross. No nicknames.”

“Oh, Sugar Queen? A memorandum on nicknames?”

“Knock it off, Prince Ponytail.”

Zuko laughed, and from the other side of the gym Hakoda caught his daughter’s eyes. “Whatever you say, Sweetness.”

In front of the check-in table and the innocent Earth Kingdom girls who’d volunteered for this, Katara punched Zuko with a quick jab into his side closest to her before turning to them. “Hi, Katara Sweetwater and guest.”

Zuko took her nametag from the nice volunteer and stepped close to Katara so he could affix it to her blouse. She blushed at the attention. He tapped her nose with a finger just as her dad’s hand landed on her shoulder.

“Katara. Quick question. I’ll bring her right back Zuko.”

“Nice to see you, Hakoda, sir.”

The older man gave a smiling nod before pulling his daughter to the side out of earshot of others. “You brought Zuko?”

“Before you start, it was Sokka’s idea.”

*

Zuko leaned against the wall blocking access to the small alcove where Katara and Hakoda were clearly hashing something out. Somehow, that must have given a guy with even scruffier hair and leather pants permission to lean against the wall next to him. Zuko just raised an eyebrow, but waited in silence for the stranger to explain himself.

“One of the downsides of being the teacher’s daughter. Always pulled off to get private lectures.”

“I’m not sure; the man has a fine touch with the grill. I’d almost consider him a perk.”

The stranger offered a hand. “Jet.” Ah yes. The one from end of senior year into college. The teenage rebellion one. The “only brought home once to unmitigated disaster” one.

Zuko took his hand and gave a firm shake. “Zuko.”

Jet’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t remember such a name in our graduating class.”

“Oh no, I didn’t go to this school. I’m Katara’s date though. Hence the hanging back. I’d much rather navigate this with her.”

“Interesting. We used to date; did she tell you that?”

“No, sorry. It must have slipped her mind.”

Jet scoffed a little. “Typical. Well, here’s some free advice, since you’re obviously new to this relationship. Whatever Mr. Sweetwater says, goes. She won’t even question how high if dear daddy tells her to jump or to break up with some guy. So I wouldn’t get too attached. If Mr. Sweetwater decides you’re done? You’re done.”

Zuko raised a dismissive eyebrow. “If you think Hakoda could make Katara do anything she didn’t want to do, I’d say you’re a fool.”

“That’s what I thought. But just you wait. Or you could always bail. I mean, it’s a little weird to be coming to a school reunion this early on, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know,” an older voice cut in. “A year and a half sounds about reasonable to me. Katara, thanks for updating me on Sokka. I appreciate it.” Katara, now standing next to Zuko and away from Jet, smiled at her father as he stood in front of the three of them. “Zuko, always a pleasure to see you.” He pulled the younger man into a brief hug. “Good to see you, too, Hakoda.” The teacher turned to the third member, voice and face notably colder. “Jet. Enjoy the party, all of you.” And he waded into the loose crowd.

Zuko offered a hand to Katara. “Well, care to introduce me to some of your classmates?”

“Of course,” she replied, placing her palm in his. “Nice to see you, Jet.”

“Uh, yeah. Same to you.”

Zuko gave him a jaunty two-finger salute from the forehead. “Nice talking with you, buddy. Enjoy the party.”

Jet just glared, and Zuko had to keep him from laughing. He leaned down to Katara’s ear. “Please tell me you have more ex-boyfriends I can annoy.”

She turned, her face so close to his, as she replied, “Unfortunately, no. There are, of course, multiple hearts I broke, but most of them were actually nice.”

“Then why break the pattern with Jet, of all people.”

Katara shrugged. “You don’t always see a mistake before you make it.”

Gently bumping her shoulder with his, he replied. “Fair enough.”

*

Katara tried not to panic as the dinner ended and spun into dancing. Zuko was too good at this. She knew that both his jobs required him to charm people, but she didn’t know when he had gotten good at it. Well, not good like a politician is good at charming. It all felt so real, the way he was genuinely interested in Haru’s mustache care or how he listened to Jin talk about her full classrooms of adorable kids. He still stumbled over words - he was still Zuko - but no one seemed to care, least of all him.

When he asked her dance for a slow song, she regretted having asked him to come the way she did, but it was too late now.

“This is nice.”

He only hummed in reply, the note vibrating in his chest. With her ear pressed against his sternum, she could swear she could feel it.

“You were so charming. How do you manage it? It can’t be just all that council practice; I see you enough times when you come home from a session.”

He chuckled, another pleasant vibration against her face. “I just comfort myself with the knowledge that, given how few of them I met before tonight, even just as your friend, I don’t have to see these people for another five to ten years, whenever they schedule the next reunion. It makes it a lot easier to let the mistakes roll off my back, because they’ll have forgotten by then.”

Katara pulled back. “You would come to another of these with me?”

“Of course, Katara.”

She leaned close, still swaying to the music. “Real or for tonight?”

His eyes widened, but he didn’t immediately say anything. Disappointed, and shocked she was so disappointed, she tucked her head back on his sternum. “I’m sorry. That was, unfair, of me to ask.”

“No, it just, surprised me. I didn’t expect you, well.” He paused. “Do you want it to be fake? Because if not, we can ditch this popsicle stand and get some real ice cream and get talking in peace.”

“Getting ice cream sounds nice.”

“You gotta remember to take it slow though; don’t want to get hurt going to fast in trying something new.”

“Of course. It’s the best way to appreciate what you chose.”

As the song ended, Zuko pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Then, Sugar Queen, lets go get you some super chocolate fudge.”

“Aww, you remembered!”


	11. Feb 11 - Dragon

He’d seen her come so many times come to shelter in his cove. Normally, he would take offense – dragons are very territorial after all. But all this woman does is stretch out on the sands and rest. She doesn’t even eat his food! She’ll stretch sometimes, and run through a kata or two, but mostly she naps, dropping her heavy coat beneath her like a blanket and sleeping the day away on sand or rock. 

She never sunburns, and he is very impressed. 

So impressed, he starts leaving food out, since she’s been so polite as to not hunt for herself on his turf. 

He digs out a small pit, breaths some life into some coals, and carefully arranges some fresh kill about the actual flames. He covers the whole thing with loosely layered palms to allow the smoke to escape, leaves some pointy sticks beside the whole thing for her paws’ safety, and then goes about his business. 

While testing a rock for good nail filing qualities, he hears a howl from his cove. Quick as the wind, he dances back to his sneaky outlook over said cove. 

The woman has found his gift and is dancing about the sands, frantically fanning her mouth. He does not know much about humans, but he assumes this must be a ritual of appreciation, because after the wild dancing subsides, she carefully reapproaches the pit to take another piece. Slowly placing it in her mouth, she lets out another howl and the hopping begins again. 

When she has lain down on her cloak, having banked the fire but left roughly half the gift, he quietly moves down onto the sands to probe at her hand with his whiskers. 

_Questioning good gift yes_

Half-asleep, she makes a noise, flooding his head with the sensation of being warm and content, of eating food far too spicy but loving it, of sleepiness. 

_Named self Zhu Koh_

She rolls towards him, opens her eyes, and screams. Fear and surprise flood his mind and he scrambles backward, tossing sand everywhere as she does the same, her cloak in hand. She stands, running towards the sea. Splashing into the waves, she throws it over her shoulders and dives. A dark brown tail flicks through the waves as he watches her go. 

Interesting.

She does not come back for a while, and when she does he misses her entrance. She also does not come alone. There is a second coat by the sea, and a second human wandering around on the sands. She’s painting a story with her waving hands and babbling sounds. The second human looks like her. Nest mates? He does not seem to care. He is stretching and admiring the cove, removing some of his scales.

Ah, so they have the coat and then more coverings? Their skin is the smooth dark of their paws and face, not the blue.

He waits for her nestmate to fall asleep before stepping forward. As dawn starts to creep back into the world, he picks up the cast off over-clothes of her nestmate. The first rays of the sun touch his scales, and he looks to his Father of fathers. 

_One day requesting_

A godly chuckle – as if there is a joke he does not yet understand – and an assent. He falls onto human knees. He stands, wrapping himself in the soft blue fabric. It has been a long time since he has walked among humans, and as usual he has asked for only the shortest of his options. He no longer recognizes their language; humans, crippled by tongues, do not share thoughts and feelings as well as dragons and their languages are always changing. 

He hears a cry, and he looks to see them both awake. They are yelling something, he thinks, but he does not understand their babbling yet. Perhaps if would be worth staying, he could learn. 

He tilts his human head, human hair tossing across his face as he stretches out a human paw, looking only at her confused face. Her nestmate bristles, as if an open palm with no claws could be a threat. He stretches his paw out a little more as he forces the heavy tongue to work. “Zuh Ko.” 

She reaches out and grabs his paw, filling his brain with images of a red, sinewy dragon scrambling over sand as his white whiskers bristle in surprise. 

_paw in paw warm soft questioning better like this_

She breaks away, startled again. He tilts his head to the other side as her paw flies to her mouth. Her nestmate asks something; she replies, and he looks at her like she has three heads. She puts the paw over her neck’s base. “Katara.” She gestures towards him. “Zuko?” 

Close enough. He nods. 

She looks at her nestmate before taking his paw again, filling his head with questioning, wondering, questioning, disbelief he is real, disbelief he’d do what he’s suggesting. 

He replies with images of her politeness, cleverness, of two dragons exchanging meals before curling up together – 

She breaks away, eyes wide. She grabs at the heavy cloak and steps into the waves. Her nestmate is yelling all the time, casting wary glances at him. But he does not care. She is leaving again! It is not fair! She wraps the cloak around her as she falls into the waves. He squeaks, not magnificent but he does. 

A seal bobs up from the water. Her nestmate is yelling at the seal now, without breaking stride. The seal barks back, but the yelling continues as the seal flops onto the sands. No inner alarm rings – seals are not intruders – until the seal seems to fall apart leaving Katara lying on her cloak. 

Oh. 

No wonder Father of fathers found his request so amusing. 


	12. Feb 12 - Balance

In and out. Push and Pull. Gather and throw. 

Fire and water.

Every breath in has a breath out. The tide pushes the waves and pulls them back. The firebender, the waterbender, they gather their power together and then cast it out to protect and to attack. They draw each other close; they push the other away.

Zuko and Katara are young; they will learn through lifelong practice the balance of love – seeking the other’s best without losing yourself.

Yin and yang. Truth and trust. They will lead, and well, and fall into each other’s arms to rest the night.


	13. Feb 13 - Folktale

Katara leaned on the doorframe, eyebrow raised in an amused question – an expression familiar to those familiar with mothers. With endless patience that increased the humor of the situation with each moment she did not intrude, she watched the two teens.

Joroh had his knees bent over Kya’s shoulders, and she was holding securely onto his ankles. Her head was bent, slightly turned to better hear him with her eyes staring at nothing. Jojo, upside down, was lecturing to his dresser, referencing a music stand half raised with a notebook upside down.

“Folk culture has both verbal and material components. An example of verbal folk culture is the folktale, passed from generation to generation. So both legends and fairytales are folk tales, usually differentiated by legends being grounded in history. There can be magic in them – example the Tuatha De Danaan – but the implication is that they actually happened. The same is not true of fairytales.”

Kya bounced, banging her brother’s head against her thigh. “Good start. Now rephrase to be less grammatically confusing and dismissive of legends being true.”

“As if giants gave ancient kings magic silver hands.” 

“Who’s to say they didn’t?”

“Mom!” Kya let go of Jojo, who promptly fell head first onto the carpeted floor and into a disorganized heap.

Katara laughed. “I’ll have to tell your dad you’ve stolen his studying technique.”

Jojo rolled over to lie flat on his back. “We were making the memory of the studying memorable. I want to do well on my English presentation.”

“And you will, if you listen to your sister and fix that disaster of phrase construction, what was it ‘differentiated by legends being grounded?’ That’s a mouthful. Think of your dad presenting a new policy. Clear, concise, as little wiggle room for confusion as possible.”

Her son groaned, maybe from the exhaustion of studying, maybe from his sister dumping him on the floor.

Kya tapped his foot with hers. “Also, we still call unusually tall people giants, and we know silver has self-cleaning properties, to put it perhaps too simply. You wouldn’t want people centuries from now to dismiss as made-up the tale of a brilliant doctor married to an unlikely politician, from different nations, just because her keeping his heart beating through trauma sounds like magic when people retell it.”

“There’s photos of that and we write stuff down.”

“Good grief,” Kya muttered, grabbing her brother’s arm and hoisting him into a fireman’s carry. “You get a pass for now for being 14 and I just gave you cranial trauma, but we’re officially adding the Australian Aborigines to your presentation. ‘Scuse me, Mom.”

Katara moved to the side, letting her daughter haul away Jojo and head for the library as Zuko came around the corner. He did a double-take as the teens paraded past him before looking at Katara.

“Do I want to know?”

“They were doing your upside down memorization technique.”

“Oops.”

Not for the first time that day, not for the last, Katara laughed.


	14. Feb 14 - Dao Swords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are two scenes from my fic Still Burning Embers - also published here. One reworked, one from a different point of view. If you don't mind _slight_ spoilers, read on. Otherwise, feel free to skip this day.

Katara was ready to kill him, finally, once and for all.

Forget running from her life from the Dai Li and Fire Nation soldiers, now was time to put down the arrogant jerk who’d chased them even into Ba Sing Se, who had the luck to grab Aang in their worst moment-

Zuko just shoved their airbender farther down the alley. He didn’t engage any of his pursuers. He ducked Sokka’s swings, sidestepped her attack, and moved past Toph – who was turning already to look behind them.

Katara didn’t have time to reel her water back – just to grab hold of Aang’s shoulder. Not with how fast Zuko pulled swords – paired dao she recognized from the desert – and leapt at the soldiers who came around the corner.

They didn’t have time to react. Zuko spun and twisted with each strike, blades flashing silently through his attack.

And when he stopped, when those blades clicked together, blood dripping on the dusty ground - that was when Zuko finally looked at them.

At her.

Her heart broke. She never wanted to see that resolve on Sokka’s face. That regret held back by the knowledge that had he not acted, he would be dead and maybe the hope of the world would be, too. The calm compartmentalization that – oh please let his uncle be nearby and safe – would fall apart as soon as he was not needed.

Sokka brushed past her, and without saying a word he bent down with Zuko to drag the first corpse out of sight.

She dug her nails into Aang’s shoulder when she felt him shift to say something. Now, with the blood still dripping from the dao, was not the time.

*

Zuko crouched in the trees, careful to keep his dao secured safely to his back and partially covered by his clothing. He didn’t want to interfere if he didn’t have to, but he also didn’t want Katara to recognize him. At this point, she had to know what his dao hilts looked like, especially designed to fit together as they were.

He had to protect her. Not just because she’d saved his life or because she was teaching Aang how to be an adult and save the world. Not even because she called him friend.

No, he could admit it to himself here in the trees but never where she could hear him, but he had to protect her because he loved her. And if encouraging her to her best life meant protecting her and then getting out of the way, he would. It would hurt but he would.

Internally, he sighed as he dropped down to the ground and pulled the blue spirit mask completely over his face. Based on how it was going, he would need to interfere. He wrapped some black silk around the hilt as he slipped forward, extending the dao to rest comfortably on the spy’s neck.

Show time.


	15. Feb 15 - Scars

A physical scar, a map on your skin of who you are – what you have done; perhaps where you have been. Of what was done to you.

Scars tracing love and sacrifice are etched into the world through pain.

A ruddy star blooms across a young man’s chest – a testament to the blow he would not let land on her, and a testament to the young woman’s determination and skill.

Each night, when she sleeps soundly next to her husband, her hand rests gently over the scar. The crown of their love is matched by the crowns of their authority.


	16. Feb 16 - Intimacy

Katara scrolled through Tumblr, taking a few seconds every few posts to pull Zuko’s attention from his own feed to show him a new meme.

He looked up at her, finally, his head resting on her lap with one of her hands tangled in his hair. “You know, we’re mutuals. I see everything you reblog.”

“I know.” She tapped his nose with her phone. “But it’s nice to see your reaction right here in person.”

Zuko blushed. “This is nice.”

“Your face is nice.” As he blushed harder, she added, also smiling, “The sixth and secret love language is memes.”


	17. Feb 17 - Eclipse

Katara learns that solar eclipses are not rare as the owl implied and never cover the whole world.

Zuko learns that lunar eclipses certainly hamper a waterbender, but they are not powerless the way he would be – not with the ocean there and La separated from her brother, not benders.

When eclipses happen – when they effect the royal couple – they back up the other, covering the other’s weak spots with their own strength. Zuko was quite thrilled to have a reason to train his wife to swordfight.

Any excuse to see that victorious smirk on her face, just for him.


	18. Feb 18 - Caught Undressed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love a Beauty and the Beast AU

The light faded, leaving a pale young man - scarred across one eye the way The Beast had been - kneeling in a puddle of clothing far too big for him.

He looked at her with familiar golden eyes. “Katara? Oh Agni, you did it. You broke the curse.” He hastily knotted his cloak around him and stood shakily as if unused to legs. He offered a hand while stepping forward. “It’s me. It’s Zuko.”

The door burst open behind him - filled with faces she didn’t recognize but somehow knew - right as the knots gave up and his cloak hit the floor.


	19. Feb 19 - Avatara

“Sifu Aang, how did you get so old?”

“Well, little Katara, I listened to my mother.” 

The little girl squealed. “I am never listening to her again!”

“No, wait, wrong lesson! Come back-”

*

“Sifu Aang, how did you get so old?”

The old man sighed and leaned on his staff, tilting his head. His long hair jingled with the Water Tribe charms tied into his braids, the headband he always wore keeping them out of his eyes. He squinted out at the snows that rolled over the horizon as far as they could see. He looked down at the bright seven year old who had come out to walk with him. “They say, Katara, that benders and others close to the spirits, that as they keep up that connection, nurture their chi, they can live centuries. Avatar Kyoshi lived several centuries.”

“So if I get good enough at waterbending, I’ll never going to die?”

He chucked, ruffling her hair. “I never said that, little one.”

*

“Sifu Aang, how- how- how…”

“Hush, dear, hush.” He cradled the breaking eight year old in his arms. “Let us be sad together. Let us grieve together.”

“But how-” she broke off into more sobs.

“Oh child.” He looked up as Hakoda entered the shaman’s tent, new lines of grief etched into his young face. Aang extended a hand, and, when the chief took the bait, he pulled him down into a group hug, making a Katara sandwich.

“One day at a time, and lots of hugs.” He felt the younger man’s shoulders shake. “Just like this.”

*

“Sifu Aang, you’re being stupid.”

The old man just chuckled and leaned on his staff, squinting out into the snows on their walk. “Sokka tells me you almost capsized your boat this morning.”

The teen crossed her arms. “He deserved that tongue-lashing for ignoring that I caught a fish before he did. It’s what Gran-Gran would have said.”

“The difference between you and Kanna is that one of you is actually a tribe elder.”

“I don’t see how some ultimately harmless splashing means I now have to go out on a walk with you. Losing all my time to do housework seems a little harsh.”

“Katara, have you ever felt like something is missing?”

“What?”

“Have you ever felt like there is more you’re meant for?”

She huffed. “Yeah, like I think my destiny is to pull fish hooks out of Sokka’s thumbs and do all the mending he’s too impatient to finish.”

Aang fished inside his coat and withdrew an old wooden box. It was easily held in his hand, worn around the edges where the yellow paint had worn off. There was a funny looking lock on the face of it, symbols she did not recognized carved both into the lock and the box itself, creating crevices for the yellow paint to survive the years.

“One hundred years ago, Fire Lord Sozin made the mistake most evil people do, that to do good one must be righteous. But if the average person can look at evil planned and say ‘no, not this,’ they can do good even if they do not make a grand public gesture.” He offered her the box.

“It’s locked; I can’t open it.”

“It’s an airlock. An airbender can open it.”

She raised an eyebrow, looking so much like her grandmother about to tear into a foolish tribesman. “You know, I liked you better when you were everyone’s crazy adopted uncle who could toss us the highest into the snow banks.”

Aang exhaled, slow and heavy, the stream of his breath clear as it wound straight for the lock and twisted through it, popping the lid. “And that is how I managed to toss you so high.”

“You’re an airbender!”

“Open the box, Katara.”

She did so, and her brow furrowed as she stared at the few trinkets inside. A green top lying on its side, a red cloth doll, and a yellow knotted string with multicolored beads looped along its length sat in the box like a strange memento box. “How did you get my stuff,” she asked softly, confused by her words as much as by the box’s contents as she reached for the beaded string.

“This box has been locked for a hundred years, Katara,” Aang replied as her fingers closed around the first bead.

Light exploded across her vision, and it felt like she was flying through the air. She landed on her back and immediately rolled back to her feet. To her confusion, it looked like she was in what Aang had described swamps as looking like when he told stories. Everything had a faint glow, including the bald kid sitting cross-legged in front of her and smiling up at her.

“Hello Katara!”

“Am I dead?”

“Nope! Just woefully untrained. But that’s okay, because you’ve only just learned you’re the Avatar like I was.”

Katara raised an eyebrow. “You’re just a kid.”

“So are you. Don’t tell Aang though, there’s no question that will answer that he’s ready for.”

“He’s a hundred and twelve. I sure hope he can handle a message from the spirits.”

The boy stood, yellow robes floating around him a nice contrast to his blue arrow tattoos. “Just trust me. Now, you’ll get better at this as you practice, but I’ll help you back to your body this time.”

“I left my body?” “You’re the bridge between the human world and the spirit world, Katara. This is part of the job.” He smiled and tapped her forehead.

She blinked and she was surrounded by snow again, lying on her back. Aang was climbing back to his feet, the box lay open between them. “Well,” he began, extending a hand to help her up. “I did not expect such a light show.”

*

“I saw the lights! Just hand over the Avatar and I will leave! No one has to get hurt.”

Aang met Iroh’s eyes over the head of the blustering teenager. This was the nephew he spoke so highly of? He did not look like much, or like anything but a devoted son of Ozai’s, despite the scar. Ah well. His hand was forced by Sokka’s loud mouth. The next mail ship would undoubtedly carry away with it a report from Ozai’s spy – the identity of whom still escaped his probings, something that would forever prickle at him – given that the boy had tried to get Katara reprimanded for waterbending.

He was pretty sure how the youths would respond to this.

“Alright, alright, enough is enough.” Aang stepped forward, inwardly smiling at the surprise on the Fire Nation Prince’s face. “I am the Avatar. Take me away.”

Gold eyes narrowed. “How do I know you’re not just lying to save your people?”

With a sweep of Aang’s hand, air flung snow into Zuko’s face. “I’ll go with you, if you swear any of my clever attempts to escape will not result in retribution on the tribe.”

As the teen clawed at the snow in his collar, Aang winked at Katara. She nodded, ducking her head to hide a smirk.

“Deal. Bring him aboard.”

*

Zuko took a fortifying breath outside the room his men had stashed the Avatar in. He was about to go face an old man, yes, but one who’d had a hundred years to master all four elements. This was what he’d been training for, what his father expected him to face. He could do this; he was not the failure Court and his sister thought him.

He threw the door open, hoping to intimidate.

It didn’t ruffle the old man at all. He was sitting chin in hand as Uncle Iroh placed a tile on the Pai Sho board between them.

“Uncle!”

“Ah, Prince Zuko. Do come in. I could use your eyes; the Avatar is beating me soundly.”

The Avatar shook a finger in friendly chastisement at Uncle. “Hey now! No cheating. That’s not very honorable.”

“Excuse me! You are a prisoner! Uncle, stop playing with him.”

Uncle placed a tile. A stupid move, actually, unless there was a pattern Zuko wasn’t seeing. Uncle probably had some gambit in play Zuko couldn’t actually help with that would slam shut around the Avatar’s tiles sooner or later. Why lay out the spirit tile to follow the world tile?

The older man chuckled. “She was cute; wasn’t she? The young lady protecting the tribe’s little kids?” He snuck a teasing glance at Zuko as Uncle’s eyebrows raised in consideration. 

He thought of fierce blue eyes glaring out of her well-formed face. “I didn’t notice.”

“Didn’t notice? Iroh, I am beginning to suspect both your Pai Sho skills and your parenting skills. What young man doesn’t notice a pretty girl?”

“I was trying to catch you!”

“Well I am much too old for you. And I’m not sure I’d be interested in someone who’s so focused on his goal he forgets about situational awareness.”

“I am situationally aware!” Zuko yelled, right as the shipped lurched and suddenly stopped.

The Avatar smiled. “Well, that’s my ride.”

*

Zuko breathed heavily with effort, his ship tilting from the ice the waterbender - oh, father was going to have _words_ with their spy - had produced to stop their movement. The Avatar was laughing over head, his walking stick turned into a glider, wheeling in a wide circle to follow after the small boat piloted by the young tribesman who’d challenged him.

Leaning over the rail, Zuko met the eyes of the waterbender - the one who’d protected the little kids - as he looked back. She was staring back, perhaps to track the Avatar.

Her eyes were fierce, and with the wind blowing her hair he could see what the Avatar-

She flipped him off with both hands, and the boat vanished around an iceberg.


	20. Feb 20 - Fairytale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration from Eurovision winner Alexander Ryback.

“Years ago,” Zuko began, bouncing a toddler on his knee. “When I was younger, I kinda liked a girl I knew. She was mine, and we were sweethearts. That was then, but still it’s true.”

“Daddy,” whined his eldest, his very adorable little girl. “Not this story again.”

“But it’s your favorite.”

She pouted her lip. “No, it’s your favorite.”

He laughed, standing to tuck his sleeping son into bed. “Well, this fairytale ends with me as your dad, so can you blame me?”

She thought for a moment. “It did put Mommy to sleep.”

Zuko kissed her forehead, urging her to lay back down. “That’s because she was a proper fairytale queen today, taking care of you two on her own while I was off slaying dragons. Tomorrow is my turn. So we’re gonna clean everything and cook the best dinner for when Mommy comes back from defeating ogres, right?”

“Right!”

He couldn’t resist and kissed his daughter’s forehead again. “Now, do you want more of the story or will you go to bed?”

“I’ll go to bed. Love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too,” he replied, kissing her forehead again before picking up his wife from the daybed in the nursery. “Sleep well, both of you.”

As his soft footfalls accompanied him down the hallway back to their room, he heard his wife softly say, “So every day after we’ve started fighting dragons we then fall in love every night? Do you want to demonstrate what that means?”

“If I did not have a country to run and kids to parent, you know I would spend all tomorrow showing you exactly what I mean.”

Katara grinned sleepily. “I’ll take that as a yes.”


	21. Feb 21 – Aurora Borealis

The dark night sky lit up suddenly with an array of colors, bright and beautiful as they wove through the heavens, dancing around the stars.

Katara clutched Zuko’s hand, leaning into him to rest her head on his shoulder. These quiet moments watching the sky, they were worth fighting for. And they had, too much for their youth. But here they stood, together, victorious and so alive. 

“Are we supposed to make a wish?” he whispered.

“You can think of something we’re missing?”

He chuckled and squeezed her hand. “Not in this moment. Thank you for sharing it with me.”


	22. Feb 22 - Blood Moon

As Zuko lay unconscious on the ground, the traitor laughed. “It’s a lunar eclipse tonight! A blood moon. La is separated from her brother. You’ll find yourself powerless before long.”

Katara took a deep breath, slipping into a stronger stance as she stared at the villain between her and her injured boyfriend. She lifted her hands. “It’s also the full moon; I may be weaker, but the Ocean is still with me.” She smirked, dark, as the traitor seemed to pause.

“As you said, it is a blood moon,” she intoned, as her bending grabbed ahold of his pumping heart.


	23. Feb 23 - After the Rain

Green growth always follows the rain. Though the rain might bring floods, end games, darken moods - the grass that springs in its wake is the softest underfoot.

Katara slips her hand into Zuko’s - the war the biggest stormcloud of them all finally dissipating - and she knows, that the grandest adventure, the biggest chance to grow, is only just beginning.

Zuko squeezes her hand as the comet leaves on its centennial cycle - the promise of many joyous tomorrows contained in that gentle pressure.

Katara has stopped the rain before - she can withstand any storms to come, her hand always in his.


	24. Feb 24 – You’re in Love with Him/Her

He broke the silence. “You’re in love with Aang, aren’t you?”

“Zuko,” Katara started to protest but broke off, biting her lip as she turned away.

“It’s okay; I knew it was a long shot but I had to be honest about how I feel about you.”

Her blue eyes met his, alight with something burning. “That’s not fair to you; you’re a great guy, and I think you should know that.”

“Is that all you have to say? I promise I will listen without judgement.”

Her mouth opened to reply as the study room door opened and Aang entered.


	25. Feb 25 – Forced to share a hotel Room

The two leaned on the counter, exchanging a quick look before replying to the receptionist/cook/owner of the bed and breakfast, the only place around for miles with a downpour raging outside.

“We’ll take it.”

“Wonderful! It’s our smallest room, but it’s perfect for married couples such as yourselves just passing through.”

“Married couples. Yep. That’s us. Definitely.” Katara lightly stepped on Zuko’s foot, and his teeth clacked together, shutting up.

“Here’s your key!”

Katara waited until they were alone to hiss, “The next place better have two beds.”

“What, you don’t want to cuddle?”

“Okay, yes, but still.”


	26. Feb 26 – Rainstorm

“Right there!” Katara let go of the couch and hopped onto the cushions. Cradling her mug of warm tea with both hands, she looked pointedly at Zuko until he joined her, curling around her to lean his head on her shoulder. 

“The view is perfect,” she whispered, pressing a kiss to the crown of his head.

Outside their cozy home, rain fell in torrents as the storm moved through. But inside, warm, wrapped by her personal-heater of a husband with the couch turned to their bay window, this was the best way to watch the weather she loved so much.


	27. Feb 27 - Heartbeat

If every heartbeat is precious, then your beloved’s is even more so. To hear that beat, to feel that song coursing through veins and lifting up a body to laugh, to move, to love, and from your dearest love’s heart? Irreplaceable.

To have seen how close that heart can come to stopping? Unimaginable.

Katara bends away the rain as she walks with Zuko through the palace gardens, twists and turns known well after years together. She could reach out with her bending to feel his pulse, but she has no need, not when tonight they’ll curl up close together tonight.


	28. Feb 28 - Ancient

Ancient and wild, the Fae Prince looked her up and down. He offered his hand, and into it leapt a crystal ball - smokey images swirling inside.

“I can offer you your dreams, Katara,” he replied in his husky voice, the shadows on his face sharpening the edges of his facial scar. “But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl, stuck mending her brother’s clothes all day.”

Her shoulders square, she looked straight into his golden eyes. “Then you’d better give Sokka back so he can mend them himself.”

The corner of the prince’s mouth twitched into a smile.


	29. Feb 29 - Crown

Zuko twists the strands of Katara’s hair into a topknot before securing her crown into place. His hands might be older and more frail, but he was born to this. His hands do not forget the way hers do, who learned later.

She smiles in thanks, accepting his help up and stealing a kiss.

Arm in arm, the Fire Lord and his Lady sweep out of their private chambers, as elegant and powerful as the day they were crowned in the prime of youth.

The gold has matched so well with both the brown and now silver of her hair.


End file.
